Placing a Spiral Staircase and Stairwell

I would like to create a spiral, or circular, staircase using Home Designer. However, when I click on the Stair Tools parent tool and then click on either the Curve To Left or Curve To Right child tool, I cannot seem to figure out how tocreate a spiral or circular staircase. How is this accomplished?

ANSWER

Spiral staircases must be added to your plan using a symbol in the library.

To place a spiral stair

In your plan, from the menu select View> Library Browser.

In previous versions the Library Browser toggle was found in the Library menu

Once the Library Browser is open, navigate to Home Designer Core Catalogs> Architectural> Staircases.

In Home Designer Suite, Interiors, and Essentials navigate to Home Designer Core Catalogs> Architectural> Spiral Stairs.

You should see a preview of the circular stairs in the view pane. Click one time on the preview to select the Large Circular Stairs or the Small Circular Stairs.

Click in your plan to place the item.

You can now use the edit handles to move and adjust the spiral staircase, or use the Select Objects tool to select the stairs, and click on the Open Object edit tool to adjust its features such as Size and Materials.

Now that we have our spiral staircase placed, we are ready to create the railings that will make up the Stairwell room.

To place the railings

If the plan does not already have two floors, use the Build> Floor> Build New Floor menu item to create a second floor based on the one below it. If your plan already has a second floor, select the Up one Floor button to continue on to the next step.

Resize the curved railing section to correctly line up with the staircase. To do this, first select the railing, and click on the center handle and to drag it to the center of the staircase.

Now that you have the center of the wall placed correctly, you may need to adjust the size a bit. To do that drag the other square handle to get the size you want.

Now you should have the railing set in the location you want.

You may notice in the Home Designer 2012 and newer software programs that once you have enclosed the stairwell room with railings, an invisible wall is automatically created connecting that room to one of the other walls in the structure.

In Home Designer version 10 and earlier versions, you must also connect the railing to a wall in the room you are in, which can be done with an Invisible Wall. An opening in the railing can be place with the Doorway tool.

To create an opening in the railing

First, select Build> Door> Doorway, then click and place where the stairs will end on Floor 2.

Your drawing should look similar to the image above.

Now we are ready to define the room on Floor 2 as Open Below.

To define the stairwell room

Using the Select Objects tool, click in the center of the stairwell room that you have created to select the room and click on the Open Object edit button to display the Room Specification dialog.

On the General panel:

Change the Room Type to Open Below.

Set the Room Name to Stairwell.

Click OK

Select 3D> Create Camera View> Full Camera and click and drag out a camera view of the results. Your plan should look something like this on Floor 2:

You can customize the materials applied to the Railings in their Specification dialogs.

Your plan should look something like this in a camera view taken on Floor 1: